Former drugs cheat Millar claims being allowed to compete at Olympics has finally freed him

British cyclist David Millar claims being cleared to compete at the Olympics felt like 'taking off the final handcuff'.

Millar has been selected for the initial eight-man squad for the men's road race - he became eligible in May after the British Olympic Association were forced to drop their lifetime ban for doping offenders.

The 35-year-old Scot was banned for two years in 2004 after admitting to taking the blood-boosting agent EPO. Since then he has become a leading campaigner against drugs.

Free: David Millar feels like the handcuffs are off

He told the Daily Telegraph: 'For eight years, I'd been through it all - bans, sanctions, being ostracised, legal problems - and the only thing left to hang over me was my lifetime Olympic ban and I didn't realise how much I hated living with it until it was actually lifted.

'It was like taking off the final handcuff.'

Millar's inclusion - like that of sprinter Dwain Chambers, another reformed drug cheat - has been widely questioned with four-time gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy particularly vocal in his support of a lifetime ban from the Games.

Included: Millar is part of the Team GB cycling squad

Although track racer Hoy has pledged to give his team-mate 100% backing following the squad announcement on Wednesday, Millar appears unimpressed.

He said: 'I understand completely his position.

'He's this paragon of perfection. You know, Sir Chris Hoy. He lives in a white world. Perhaps some of us live in a bit more of a grey world where we understand a bit more of what actually goes on.